Build an automation rule
Create a rule in the rule editor, save it as a draft, reopen it, and tell it apart from the separate canvas editor.
What you will have
- A new automation rule with a trigger, a condition, and an action.
- The rule saved without turning it on.
- The rule reopened for editing, filled in the way you left it.
- The read-only page a locked system rule opens instead of an editor.
- The separate canvas editor, and when it opens instead of the rule editor you just used.
Why it works this way
TagId asks for the tag's own id, not its name; look the id up from wherever your tenant lists its tags.
The Rule and Automation buttons above the form flip between two views of the SAME draft, a form and a linear card stack. Neither one is the separate node canvas.
The canvas is a second editor, for automations that were already built that way before the rule editor existed. A rule you build fresh in the rule editor never opens on the canvas.
A system rule like Skip automatic replies has no edit door at all; opening it always lands on the same read-only page your own rules use for View activity.
Steps
Open Automations, then Library, and click New Automation.
The Library lists every rule that acts on its own, your team's and the platform's built-in ones side by side.
Open Automations, then Library, and click New Automation. Click the When field and choose Ticket Created.
This is the event the rule waits for. The field defaults to Email Received; typing into the list narrows it to Ticket Created.
Click the When field and choose Ticket Created. Add the first condition: priority is HIGH.
Click Add condition, then set the Field to priority, leave the operator on is, and set the value to HIGH.
Add the first condition: priority is HIGH. Add a second condition: subject contains VPN.
Click Add condition again, set the Field to subject, change the operator to contains, and type VPN into the value box. Both conditions must match, since the step is set to Match all (AND).
Add a second condition: subject contains VPN. Add the action: Add a tag to the ticket.
Click Add action, then pick Add a tag to the ticket from the list. The field keeps those plain words after you pick, so the saved rule reads the same as the list you picked from. Type the tag's id into TagId.
Note: TagId takes the tag's id, not its display name.Add the action: Add a tag to the ticket. Click Save.
The rule saves in Disabled mode, the same mode the form opened in - a draft that does not run or record anything until you switch it to Monitor or Live.
Click Save. The rule appears in the Library, Disabled.
It lands under Unfiled until you move it to a folder. The status toggle is off - the rule takes no action yet.
Note: This rule stays Disabled on purpose - turning it Live would leave it running unattended on a shared tenant, tagging any future ticket that happens to match.The rule appears in the Library, Disabled. Open the row's menu and click Edit.
The three-dot menu at the end of the row is the only door to editing a rule you own.
Open the row's menu and click Edit. The rule opens filled in with everything you set.
The page's own title is now the rule's name, and the trigger, both conditions, and the action below it all carry over exactly as you left them.
The rule opens filled in with everything you set. Open a system rule, such as Skip automatic replies, to see its read-only page.
The Governance panel shows the same facts your own rule's editor lets you set - mode, scope, blast radius cap, stop-on-match, stop-on-error, and more - but here they are read-only.
Open a system rule, such as Skip automatic replies, to see its read-only page. Open an existing automation, such as Auto-link referenced assets on new tickets, to see it on the canvas.
This one was built as an automation rather than a rule, so its own row opens the canvas instead of the rule editor. A Trigger node and an Effect node sit joined by an arrow; the left palette holds more Trigger, Condition, and Effect nodes to drag on. Save and an Enabled switch sit in the same toolbar as the automation's name.
Open an existing automation, such as Auto-link referenced assets on new tickets, to see it on the canvas.
Other ways to do this
Ask Elise
Describe the rule in plain English in the Ask Elise panel next to the editor and review the draft it proposes.
Duplicate
Open the kebab menu on a rule that already does something close to what you want and choose Duplicate, then edit the copy.
If it did not work
- If Save lists problems instead of saving, fix each line it names - the rule has not been saved yet.
- If Save asks you to reload first, someone else changed the rule while you had it open; reload, then redo your change on the newer version.
- If Edit is missing from a rule's menu, it is a system rule and is not yours to change - its row opens the read-only page instead.
- If a row's own name opens a node canvas instead of the rule editor, that row is an automation built before the rule editor existed, not one of your rules.
Questions this page answers
What happens when I click New Automation?
The rule editor opens with nothing filled in. Pick the trigger. Add the conditions and the actions. Set the governance switches: stop on match, stop on error, and blast radius. The Ask Elise panel can draft a rule from a plain sentence, and you fix it up by hand. A new rule runs after the rules that trigger already has. The engine sets that order when you save.
What can I change on an automation?
This is the same rule editor you used to make the rule. It opens filled in with the trigger, conditions, actions and governance. Only your own rules open here. A system rule is locked, so it opens the read-only detail instead. Save applies right away. If the rule changed while you had it open, Save asks you to reload first. That way you never write over the newer one.
What is this page?
This is the read-only detail for a rule. It gives the trigger, conditions, actions, governance and recent decisions. Click a decision to see what the engine read and why it chose that. A system rule has no edit door, so the switch on the row is the only control. Your own rules are edited from the row menu.
How does the canvas editor work?
The canvas is one of two editors. Most rules are built in the rule editor, which is the New Automation form. The canvas opens when you edit a rule that is already an automation. Add trigger and action nodes, join them, then set up each node. Save keeps your work. The switch on the row turns the automation on.
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